Learning the static way
Published The MEWS on Sunday Dec 2006
Third in the list of educational systems operating in Pakistan are madrassas -- once the original schools for Muslims
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
The education system in Pakistan caters to three different categories of students. One is for the English-speaking elite class comprising cadet colleges and well-known chains of schools and is almost entirely privately run. Then there are government schools in which charges are minimal but facilities and quality of teaching are poor. Third in the list are madrassas where stress is on religious education and schooling is more or less free.
It has been rightly said that Pakistan is producing three distinctpersonalities through its contrasting systems of education. There aren't many similarities among the graduates churned out by the public schools and cadet colleges, government educational institutions, and madrassas. Most of them would tend to have a different worldview after having studied in a particular environment. Those educated in government and religious schools would have more in common than those studying in the elitist educational institutions because they largely belong to the poor and lower middle classes. Though it is understandable to have different level of schools to cater to students belonging to various socio-economic groups, the implications for the future on account of such a non-uniform educational system are obvious.
Madrassas have been part of life in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, as well as in other Islamic countries. Indeed the madrassas were the original form of schooling for Muslims and were gradually replaced by the more secular and conventional schools over a period of time. While madrassas elsewhere in the Islamic world underwent a change in keeping with the trends of a modernising global environment, those in undivided India and in present-day Pakistan remained largely static. Efforts to effect changes in their curriculum and include modern sciences in the madrassa syllabus faltered because the Ulema running them were suspicious of those pushing for a change. Policy-makers and decision-takers were mostly from the secular establishment and, therefore, they were unable to create the right conditions to convince the clergy controlling the madrassa system that their intentions were sincere and well-meaning.
In the existing scenario, madrassas largely cater to two categories of people. Poor parents send their children to madrassas which offer free education, food and shelter because they cannot afford to educate their wards in conventional schools. Then there are the relatively wealthy families wishing to have one or two kids study religion full-time in a bid to seek Allah's blessings. Students receiving religious education part-time form a significant segment of the school-going children. Most Pakistani families make it a point to impart basic Quranic education to their children by sending them to mosques and homes or asking tutors to visit their residences.
Official figures show the number of madrassas, including both small and big, to be over 10,000. Among them are unregistered religious schools because government plans to register seminaries encountered opposition from the clergy. The seminaries mushroomed following the military takeover of the country by General Ziaul Haq primarily due to government backing and funding. Every clergyman worth his salt set up a madrassa and sustained it either with government funds or donations. Pakistanis are believed to be some of the biggest charity-givers in the Islamic world and most of their donations go to mosques and madrassas. In recent years, madrassas for girls have been set up rapidly and nowadays one often sees seminaries for male and female students existing close to each other under the same management.
Data collected by the security agencies in the NWFP sometime back showed that 1,761 madrassas, including 1,034 that were unregistered, with total enrolment of 223,900 were functioning in the province. The students included a large, unspecified number of Afghan refugees and another 64 from other countries. However, this was before the government banned foreigners from receiving madrassa education in Pakistan. The data gathered by the labour and industries department, NWFP, which is supposed to register madrassas, differed with that put together by the intelligence agencies. Its figures showed that the province had 1,823 madrassas, including 1,433 that were registered before registration of new seminaries was banned in 1994. When the ban was subsequently lifted, another 390 madrassas were registered. According to the security agencies' survey, 228,021 students had graduated from madrassas in the NWFP during the past 10 years. The number of madrassas graduates grew every year and it was 32,177 last year. The green and mountainous Swat district, the favourite destination of tourists, had more madrassas and students than other districts in the province.
Madrassa education has undergone little change over the years. With a few exceptions, most seminaries have stuck to the old syllabus and teaching methods. Government efforts to reform the system of education at the madrassas have been slow and ineffective. The Wifaqul Madaris, an independent, Ulema-run body that oversees madrassa education and conducts examinations, has resisted change suggested by outsiders. Maulana Hanif Jullundhari, one of its top functionaries, recently wrote a series of articles to show that madrassa students unlike their counterparts from conventional educational institutions never resorted to strikes and violence and refrained from teaching in examinations. He argued that the madrassas were performing a specific role by imparting quality religious education and should continue to do so in the same manner in which public schools and colleges were providing secular teaching.
Some clergymen are also fond of quoting Allama Iqbal, who while visiting Spain was saddened by the sight of the old Islamic cities and institutions that Muslim conquerors left behind after their defeat at the hands of Christians. The Allama is reported to have said that the madrassas should remain as they are so that children of poor Muslims continue to study there and become Mullas and Dervishes. "Otherwise, Indian Muslims would meet the same fate as the Muslims in Undulas (Spain) where the ruins of Grenada and Qurtaba and the relics of Al-Hamra are the only remaining signs of Islamic culture in a country ruled by Muslims for 800 long years," Allama Iqbal reportedly observed.
It is obvious that the clergymen see the madrassas as repositories of Islamic learning and fortresses of the religion. They believe the worldview the madrassas offer is aimed at defending the faith from onslaught by non-believers. Critics don't agree with this observation as they feel madrassa education doesn't fully equip the students to meet modern challenges. In their view, madrassas retard progress because there is no teaching of modern sciences or languages at the seminaries. There is also the feeling that madrassas promote religious sectarianism as the seminaries cater to particular schools of thought ranging from Deobandi to Barelvi and Ahle Hadith to Ahle Tashee (Shia). The religious divide inculcated in the minds of young and impressionable minds at the madrassas blocks integration and tolerance and causes strife.
There are bound to be problems in the education sector in Pakistan in future if we continue with the divergent educational systems. There would certainly be clash of ideas between those graduating from elitist educational institutions and the government and religious schools. One could only hope that it doesn't lead to violence.
Published The MEWS on Sunday Dec 2006
Third in the list of educational systems operating in Pakistan are madrassas -- once the original schools for Muslims
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
The education system in Pakistan caters to three different categories of students. One is for the English-speaking elite class comprising cadet colleges and well-known chains of schools and is almost entirely privately run. Then there are government schools in which charges are minimal but facilities and quality of teaching are poor. Third in the list are madrassas where stress is on religious education and schooling is more or less free.
It has been rightly said that Pakistan is producing three distinctpersonalities through its contrasting systems of education. There aren't many similarities among the graduates churned out by the public schools and cadet colleges, government educational institutions, and madrassas. Most of them would tend to have a different worldview after having studied in a particular environment. Those educated in government and religious schools would have more in common than those studying in the elitist educational institutions because they largely belong to the poor and lower middle classes. Though it is understandable to have different level of schools to cater to students belonging to various socio-economic groups, the implications for the future on account of such a non-uniform educational system are obvious.
Madrassas have been part of life in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, as well as in other Islamic countries. Indeed the madrassas were the original form of schooling for Muslims and were gradually replaced by the more secular and conventional schools over a period of time. While madrassas elsewhere in the Islamic world underwent a change in keeping with the trends of a modernising global environment, those in undivided India and in present-day Pakistan remained largely static. Efforts to effect changes in their curriculum and include modern sciences in the madrassa syllabus faltered because the Ulema running them were suspicious of those pushing for a change. Policy-makers and decision-takers were mostly from the secular establishment and, therefore, they were unable to create the right conditions to convince the clergy controlling the madrassa system that their intentions were sincere and well-meaning.
In the existing scenario, madrassas largely cater to two categories of people. Poor parents send their children to madrassas which offer free education, food and shelter because they cannot afford to educate their wards in conventional schools. Then there are the relatively wealthy families wishing to have one or two kids study religion full-time in a bid to seek Allah's blessings. Students receiving religious education part-time form a significant segment of the school-going children. Most Pakistani families make it a point to impart basic Quranic education to their children by sending them to mosques and homes or asking tutors to visit their residences.
Official figures show the number of madrassas, including both small and big, to be over 10,000. Among them are unregistered religious schools because government plans to register seminaries encountered opposition from the clergy. The seminaries mushroomed following the military takeover of the country by General Ziaul Haq primarily due to government backing and funding. Every clergyman worth his salt set up a madrassa and sustained it either with government funds or donations. Pakistanis are believed to be some of the biggest charity-givers in the Islamic world and most of their donations go to mosques and madrassas. In recent years, madrassas for girls have been set up rapidly and nowadays one often sees seminaries for male and female students existing close to each other under the same management.
Data collected by the security agencies in the NWFP sometime back showed that 1,761 madrassas, including 1,034 that were unregistered, with total enrolment of 223,900 were functioning in the province. The students included a large, unspecified number of Afghan refugees and another 64 from other countries. However, this was before the government banned foreigners from receiving madrassa education in Pakistan. The data gathered by the labour and industries department, NWFP, which is supposed to register madrassas, differed with that put together by the intelligence agencies. Its figures showed that the province had 1,823 madrassas, including 1,433 that were registered before registration of new seminaries was banned in 1994. When the ban was subsequently lifted, another 390 madrassas were registered. According to the security agencies' survey, 228,021 students had graduated from madrassas in the NWFP during the past 10 years. The number of madrassas graduates grew every year and it was 32,177 last year. The green and mountainous Swat district, the favourite destination of tourists, had more madrassas and students than other districts in the province.
Madrassa education has undergone little change over the years. With a few exceptions, most seminaries have stuck to the old syllabus and teaching methods. Government efforts to reform the system of education at the madrassas have been slow and ineffective. The Wifaqul Madaris, an independent, Ulema-run body that oversees madrassa education and conducts examinations, has resisted change suggested by outsiders. Maulana Hanif Jullundhari, one of its top functionaries, recently wrote a series of articles to show that madrassa students unlike their counterparts from conventional educational institutions never resorted to strikes and violence and refrained from teaching in examinations. He argued that the madrassas were performing a specific role by imparting quality religious education and should continue to do so in the same manner in which public schools and colleges were providing secular teaching.
Some clergymen are also fond of quoting Allama Iqbal, who while visiting Spain was saddened by the sight of the old Islamic cities and institutions that Muslim conquerors left behind after their defeat at the hands of Christians. The Allama is reported to have said that the madrassas should remain as they are so that children of poor Muslims continue to study there and become Mullas and Dervishes. "Otherwise, Indian Muslims would meet the same fate as the Muslims in Undulas (Spain) where the ruins of Grenada and Qurtaba and the relics of Al-Hamra are the only remaining signs of Islamic culture in a country ruled by Muslims for 800 long years," Allama Iqbal reportedly observed.
It is obvious that the clergymen see the madrassas as repositories of Islamic learning and fortresses of the religion. They believe the worldview the madrassas offer is aimed at defending the faith from onslaught by non-believers. Critics don't agree with this observation as they feel madrassa education doesn't fully equip the students to meet modern challenges. In their view, madrassas retard progress because there is no teaching of modern sciences or languages at the seminaries. There is also the feeling that madrassas promote religious sectarianism as the seminaries cater to particular schools of thought ranging from Deobandi to Barelvi and Ahle Hadith to Ahle Tashee (Shia). The religious divide inculcated in the minds of young and impressionable minds at the madrassas blocks integration and tolerance and causes strife.
There are bound to be problems in the education sector in Pakistan in future if we continue with the divergent educational systems. There would certainly be clash of ideas between those graduating from elitist educational institutions and the government and religious schools. One could only hope that it doesn't lead to violence.
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